How to Choose SEO Competitors for a Search Query

Business competitors and search competitors

Business competitors offer similar products or services to the same potential customers. Search competitors are the sites and pages that appear for a particular query and compete for the attention of someone looking for an answer or an offer.

The groups can overlap, but they do not have to. A local company may compete with you for customers yet not appear for a broad informational query. For a commercial query, results may include directories, aggregators or marketplaces alongside businesses that provide the service.

For a page-level review, “Who are my competitors?” is too broad. Ask instead: “Which pages appear for this query, what do they offer, and what should I check on my own site?”

Record the search conditions

Note where and how you checked the query. The search engine, language, location, device and date help explain what your notes refer to. Do not treat one search as a permanent competitor list: results may differ under different conditions and over time.

• Search engine: record results separately if you check more than one search engine.
• Query: save the exact wording. Similar queries can express different tasks; group them only after checking their results.
• Language and location: note the query language and the area or market relevant to your business. This is particularly important for local services.
• Device and date: record whether you checked on desktop or mobile and when you ran the search.

A private browsing window does not turn one search into a universal list of competitors. Treat it as an observation and record the conditions in which you made it.

Check whether the pages serve the same task

Do not judge a result by its domain or title alone. Open the page and check what it offers and what a visitor can do next.

Identify the page type and purpose

A query may indicate that someone wants to choose a service, buy a product, find instructions or compare options. A service page, product page and informational article may appear for different queries and serve different purposes.

For each result, record the page type, its main content and the visitor’s next step. If the query suggests that someone is looking for a provider, check whether the page explains the service and shows how to contact the business. If the query is informational, check whether the page answers the question and gives clear instructions. This is a way to describe page content, not a claim about a specific ranking factor.

If you are deciding which type of ecommerce page should target a query, rather than choosing sites to review, read our guide to choosing between a category page and a product page.

Label directories and reference sites separately

For each result, note the site type: a business, directory, marketplace, reference page or another format. Separately record whether your business considers the site a direct commercial rival. This helps you account for visible results without treating every site as the same kind of competitor.

A directory may appear for an important query without providing the same service as your company. Record what task its page serves and how it is organised. Do not adopt that format on your own site without checking whether it suits your offer and audience.

What to record when reviewing pages

Use a simple worksheet. To begin, record enough to identify the results and decide what to check on your own page.

Illustrative example: imagine an appliance repair business checking “coffee machine repair in Leeds”. The results include service-provider websites and a directory. The business records each page URL, labels its type and checks what service information and contact options are visible. This shows how to fill in the worksheet; it is not a report of actual search results or business performance.

How to interpret estimates of another site’s traffic

Data about your own site does not give you access to another site’s analytics. Google describes Search Console performance reports as showing impressions and clicks for links to the current property in Google services. For privacy reasons, these reports do not show data for links that point to another Search Console property (Google’s guidance on Search Console performance reports).

The Search Analytics API requires authorisation and a Search Console property. It can group data for that property by dimensions including query and page. Google warns that the API may not return every data row because of internal limitations (Search Analytics API documentation). It does not give you access to another domain’s private reports.

Google says some queries may be omitted from Search Console for privacy and internal processing reasons, and its data can differ from other tools (Google’s guidance on Search Console data limitations). When reviewing competitors, focus on the pages and results you can inspect yourself. If a third-party service estimates another site’s traffic or visibility, describe the figure as that service’s estimate, not as verified traffic.

A practical process for selecting pages

1. Choose one query. Record its exact wording rather than combining it in advance with similar phrases.
2. Note the search conditions. Record the search engine, language, location, device and date.
3. Save the result URLs. Review the pages, not just the domain names.
4. Label the site and page types. For example, note whether each result is a business or a directory, and whether the page is a service page or a guide.
5. Check the page’s purpose. Decide whether it helps the visitor do the same thing as your page.
6. Separate observations from hypotheses. “The page has a booking form” is an observation. “The form increases enquiries” is a hypothesis that a search-results review cannot confirm.
7. Choose a next check. Decide whether to review your page format, answer, offer or route to enquiry.

Use the comparison to review your own site

The aim is to decide what to check on your page, not to copy another result. If one type of page appears frequently for the query, check whether your page serves the same task and gives visitors the information they need. That observation can guide your review; on its own, it does not prove that you need a new page.

If the results include different page types, group them and check whether the query is specific enough for a useful review. If your site does not appear in the results you checked, that alone does not explain why. Review the data available for your own site, the content of the relevant page and its technical state.

Write the outcome as a task: name the URL, state the question you need to resolve and define an observable sign that will show whether the work is complete. This makes the review easier to pass to a specialist or developer without making assumptions about another site’s sales or traffic.

Common mistakes

• Calling every visible site a direct business rival. First identify the site type and the task its page serves.
• Reviewing only homepages. The result for your query may be an internal page; check that page.
• Mixing queries, locations or search engines. Record the conditions alongside each result.
• Presenting a third-party estimate as verified traffic. Without access to the site’s analytics, the figure is not a verified fact.
• Copying page elements without checking their purpose. Their presence elsewhere does not establish that they belong on your site.

A manual review shows search results under particular conditions and at a particular time. It can help you select pages to examine, but it cannot reveal another site’s sales, enquiry quality, traffic sources or reasons for appearing in the results.

Conclusion

Start an SEO comparison with a specific query and the pages that appear for it. Record the search conditions, identify what each page offers and keep verified observations separate from assumptions. Treat third-party estimates as estimates, not as access to another site’s analytics.

To review your site’s visibility and decide which work to prioritise, learn more about SEO services from SEO.LISA.